Necessary Evils
by sporting09
Summary: A new marriage law has been passed by the Ministry of Magic, which was recently taken over by the Death Eaters. Hermione has to deal with being thrust into a brand new world of society, and having to get news to the Order, while being watched constantly.
1. prologue

Prologue

It was dark and desolate everywhere he turned, almost as if all the life had been sucked from the very room that surrounded him. Eerie shadows danced menacingly across the hard stone floors of the hall. The only light was emitted by small candles placed randomly around the room. As he entered the cavernous space of what was once a ballroom, he noticed he hadn't been the only one summoned this evening. Around the room stood Death Eaters of his generation, none of them any older than nineteen. They were all gathering around an elegant high backed chair that stood in the middle of the space, where the Dark Lord was currently residing.

"Ah, young Draco, you have finally arrived, and now our meeting can commence." The Dark Lord seemed to be in the highest of spirits as he could manage. Someone had done excellent work for him recently. Perhaps a troublesome family of mudbloods had been taken care of, or he had new and willing recruits.

Voldemort spoke again, this time in the direction of a man by the name of Theodore Nott. "Nott, you may now proceed to tell us of your ingenious plan."

"Thank you my lord," he said bowing his head in respect. "As we should all know, the Ministry has recently been overthrown by men of our forces. This gives us an upper hand for the time being, but it can be assumed it's not to last. It seems inevitable that a war shall be fought soon enough in order to gain Harry Potter as an asset. I have been given intel that the Order are increasing their numbers rapidly. While we still hold more power, we are lacking in numbers."

Nott paused to look around the men that had now taken their seats at a conjured table. "In order to gain more followers, and at the same time stall all of the Order's movements and recruiting, I have come up with a plan to dishevel the Wizarding community into utter chaos," he paused again, but this time it seemed to be more for dramatic effect.

"Gentlemen, what are your thoughts on marriage?"

The room broke out into mumbled chatter, much like a courtroom would after an interesting piece of evidence has been revealed.

Voldemort raised his hand to silence the young men before him. "Continue," he said facing Nott.

"My proposal is a marriage law. Each of us would be assigned a member of the Order to guard, and keep contained from the other members. This will create an air of vulnerability around the school, leaving a wide opening for the elders to form an attack, with minimal to no casualties to us." His speech was received with the loudest silence ever.

Draco mulled over what had just been proposed, it seemed logical and tactical. They would be playing to the Order's weaknesses.

"I like it," he concluded to no one in particular. Nott gave an arrogant smirk, his plan had been received rather well.

"How do we plan on deciding our spouses?" Draco's best friend, Blaise Zabini inquired.

All heads turned at the sound of a throaty cough was heard, as a signal their lord was about to speak. "It seems to me as though you have all been doing incredible work as of late. I believe allowing you to choose your spouse would be a decent enough reward. After all, this woman will be warming your bed." A devilish grin crossed his flattened features. The men gave horrid, and hungry laughs in agreement and excitement.

Draco wondered what it would be like to have a helpless little Gryffindor in his bed. Perhaps he would choose the Brown girl, or one of the Patil twins. or maybe...

"My Lord, I wish to have Hermione Granger." The silence that followed was deafening.

Draco found it bothersome no one bothered to say anything. "She is said to be the most intelligent witch of our time, and is the closest woman to Potter. I have faith in my abilities that I will be able to reign in her fiery temper, with the right motivations," he smirked. "You have my word that she will make no personal contact with any member of the Order, with me as her husband."

This time the Dark Lord responded rather quickly. "It seems as though you have given this much thought Draco. Very well, you may have the little witch."

"Thank you, My Lord." Draco bowed deeply before returning to his quiet thoughts.

He was going to marry the mudblood, Hermione Granger. His mother would love planning the wedding, and his father would hate who she was, but would be pleased the Dark Lord had entrusted this job to him. He wondered how Hermione would take it, not well obviously. How would she adapt to being the perfect high society, pureblooded wife he expected her to be? It would be a long road, with many fights, that much he was sure of. She would undoubtedly become everything he wanted her to be regardless of if she wished it or not. After all, he did have and extraordinarily large reputation to protect, and his wife wasn't going to lessen that in any way. The main thing he had to worry about was making sure the crafty little witch didn't slip through his fingers, and manage to get back to Potter and Weasley.

"...Draco. Draco? Mate," He was being shaken out of his reverie. His steely eyes came back into focus, and saw that it had only been Blaise. "Time to go mate, we have classes in the morning."

The pair of them walked out into the chilly October air, until they reached the wrought iron gates of Malfoy Manor. From there they apparated to just outside the grounds of Hogwarts, to find Snape waiting for them impatiently.


	2. An arrangement against all odds

Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me! :)

Chapter 1: An arrangement against all odds

Hermione pulled the collar of her woolen cloak closer to her neck, in attempt to keep the freezing rain from pelting her. She had just been to Hagrid's hut, where she discussed the latest Order movements around Europe. It was very important information that she needed to relay to Harry as quickly as possible. The comfort of the castle was just a few muddy yards away, and Hermione was relieved to be out of the dreary late autumn weather. She had had plans to spend the rest of the day in front of the fireplace in the library, finishing her Divination extra credit report. Entering the castle, she was over come with the feeling of confusion with all the chaos that lay before her golden honey eyes. Students of all four houses were running around in all directions.

The masses were so thick, Hermione had a hard time finding anyone she knew to ask what was going on. Luckily, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a flash of white blonde hair. Luna. She snuck her hand out, and latched onto her arm.

"Luna, what on earth is going on?"Hermione seemed completely exasperated.

"Professor McGonagall has called an assembly for all sixth and seventh years. She didn't tell us what it was for, only that it was mandatory." Luna's sing song voice helped to calm Hermione down a bit.

As they neared the Great Hall, Hermione noticed the amount of Aurors that had bee stationed at all the doors. What were they doing here? As far as she knew, the Ministry wasn't allowed to be involved in anything that went on at Hogwarts.

The girls continued on into the room, sitting in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table, right across from Harry and Ron. McGonagall raised her hand as a symbol to silence the room. As people began to sit down, Hermione could see the platform that the professors table sat on. In front of the long table stood five Ministry officials, including none other than Dolores Umbridge. She stood as tall as she could in her usual pink outfit, her face looking far too proud for Hermione's liking. She stepped forward to speak, gaining the attentions of the masses of the room by letting out one of her infamous giggles.

"The Ministry recently passed a new law that will affect each and everyone of you. The law will be completely binding for the rest of your natural lives, seeing as how it is a marriage law." The hall broke out into utter chaos, yelling was the only thing that filled Hermione's ears. She looked up to see Umbridge's face contort in fury.

"I will have ORDER!" It was amazing that her tiny voice had been heard above all the craziness. She gave a tight smirk at her small victory. "This law is effective immediately, and I shall begin to call off the pairings in a moment. Please take note that all matches are final and binding. You may under no circumstance get out of the marriage. All weddings must take place by the middle of December, or you will find yourself in Azkaban for a lifetime sentencing."

The students were too shocked to say anything at this point. She smirked at the fact she had finally silenced the young people that sat before her.

Hermione felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach. She could not marry, not now, so young. There was so much she had aspired to do, and the thought that those dreams may be taken from her killed. Above everything else though, she was furious. The Ministry was _not_ supposed to interfere at the school, especially after what had happened in her fifth year when Umbridge took over as headmistress. It seemed inevitable though. Umbridge would most likely resume her position at Hogwarts to ensure that everything went according to plan. But whose plan? this was the question that plagued her mind more than anything else. Who would have set this plan into motion, and why?

Hermione had been so caught up in her own thoughts, she hadn't even realized that Umbridge had pulled out a long yellowing scroll and had begun to read off names in pairs. Looking around the room, she saw more and more of her peers faces become pale and awestruck with each name that left Umbridge's lips. So many names, sealing so many young peoples fates, before they even had a chance to do anything on their own.

"... and Mr. Harry Potter is to be paired with Miss Tracey Davis."

Hermione's head swung around to face the boy-who-lived as fast as she possibly could. His eyes became glazed over in disbelief at the prospect of having to marry a pureblooded witch who was a member of the Slytherin house. Things really couldn't get much worse for him. It seemed as though the trend didn't stop at just Harry, though. Later, Ron was paired with Daphne Greengrass, and Seamus was to wed her little sister Astoria. Sweet Luna was to be with Marcus Flint. Neville was paired with a Slytherin by the name of Millicent Bulstrode. And Ginny was later paired with Blaise Zabini. This fact struck fear into Hermione's heart. Zabini was known for the work he did for the Dark Lord in his free time.

The list went on and on, and the room's atmosphere became more and more desolate, yet Hermione had still not heard her own name called. This worried her, seeing the number of tolerable, still available men go down. Finally, her name was heard. Her palms got all sweaty out of anxiety, and she was sure the entire rest of the room could hear her heart beating at a million miles an hour.

" Miss Hermione Granger," she felt as though Umbridge was looking straight into her soul as she spoke. "You will be marrying Mr. Draco Malfoy."

Hearing that one name sent her head into a flurry of everything and nothing at the same time. She desperately wanted to make sense of what had just happened, but her brain would not make any coherent thoughts for her. It was all a jumble, so much was going on in fact, that all she really saw was a blur of colors. Was the room still silent? She didn't know, in her mind, everything was so loud. Suddenly, one thing came into focus before her eyes: him. He stalked to her and grabbed her petite upper arm in his large masculine hand, and dragged her along, to where she didn't have a clue. It took all her focus to not trip in her vain attempts to keep up with his long strides.

Draco continued to pull her along, until they reached a portrait of a young, and very wealthy couple. Hermione could tell they had money from the way they dressed to the way they smiled- or there lack of. A handsome young man was sitting in a red velvet chair, and the young woman stood tall behind him, one of her hands gracefully resting on his broad shoulder.

"Do you have a password?" The young woman's voice rivaled her physical beauty in every way, it was graceful, yet spirited and slightly rebellious. Draco took a step towards her, and flashed his signature smirk.

"Pour L'Amour ton ennemi." How fitting, the password translated into _To love thy enemy._The irony was not lost on Hermione.

The portrait swung in to reveal a small and rather intimate sitting room. It was one of the most beautiful rooms Hermione had ever step foot in. The walls were a creamy mocha, delicate light from a crystal chandelier bouncing off of them. A fire blazed in the hearth to her left. The opposite wall was lined with book shelves from floor to ceiling. Across the room, was a staircase she assumed lead to the bedrooms.

She felt like a kid in a candy shop, caught up in her reverie, until Draco pushed her aside and walked to the a small chest on one of the shelves. He busied himself over there while Hermione ventured over to the plush ivory sofa that sat just to the side of the fire. Draco joined her, taking up residence in the brown leather chair. Her eyes traveled to his left hand, and the tumbler of amber liquid he held. The first thing to enter her mind was how did he manage to smuggle that past the professors? She concluded that it was because he was a Malfoy, and he did what he wanted.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for quite some time before Hermione gathered the courage to say something. "This is such a lovely room,"she tried.

"Only the best for a Malfoy," His eyes never left the burning abyss in the fireplace.

"Seems so odd to me. I'm to be a Malfoy in a matter of weeks."

He looked up at her. "You will need to learn how to be a Malfoy before I will even consider letting you take my name." There goes that pureblood superiority taking over. She rolled her eyes. Neither of them spoke after that comment. Hermione was getting bored just sitting there and remembered she had never had an opportunity to talk to Harry about the Order's recent movements. She walked over to the door. Her hand was on the handle when he said something.

"Just where do you think you are going, love?" He hadn't even looked up from the book he was reading.

"I'm going to speak to Harry and Ronald," she huffed, irked that he had the audacity to bother asking what she was up to.

He chuckled, "No you aren't."

Placing his book on the elegant side table, Draco moved closer to her. Her heart beat sped up as a result of this, and the annoyance building up inside her.

"Oh really? And who put me under your control, may I ask?" He came even closer, closing any previous distance between them. He was a breath away from touching her.

"The Dark Lord," he breathed into her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

**Hello, Readers!**  
><strong>This is my first story ever, and I just want to know what your thoughts about it are. Please Review!<strong>  
><strong>THANKS!<strong>


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